freebie Archives - Page 13 of 22

Crafts, Hand Lettering, Holiday, Tutorials, Watercolor

DIY: Watercolor Ribbon Father’s Day Card

This week, I thought I’d go completely analog with a DIY watercolor ribbon Father’s Day card. I love taking handmade creations digital, but every now and then – especially for sentimental holidays, you can’t really beat 100% handmade 😉 With Father’s Day coming in less than a week, you’ll still have time to seal this in an envelope, stamp it up and get it in a mailbox in time. So, let’s get this card going; all the instructions, materials and full video are below!

June 13, 2017

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Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies, Personal, Textures

Freebie: June 2017 Desktop Wallpapers

It’s the last Thursday in May, which means it’s time for your free June 2017 desktop wallpapers! I’ve been wanting to play with acrylics a bit more lately, so this month’s wallpaper was an experiment of color mixing and texture. I went with a blue/green/teal palette for Father’s Day this month, keeping a balanced mix of all (without getting too muddy) throughout. Let me know if you’d like a tutorial on how I made the paint texture and I’ll put one together 😉 Once created (and dry), I scanned the artwork into the computer, color adjusted in Photoshop, then added the dates using my font, Miss Magnolia.

The download includes the wallpapers in two common resolutions: 1280x1024px and 1920x1080px, with and without dates. I’ve left the year off of the ‘no-dates’ versions, so you can use it for any June in the future, too!

May 25, 2017

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Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies, Illustration, Personal

Freebie: May 2017 Desktop Wallpapers

It’s time for your free May 2017 desktop wallpapers! This month’s (May flowers) wallpaper was created using this Winsor & Newton watercolor pan set with a no. 1, no.4 + no.8 round brush on this Canson watercolor paper. I then scanned the individual flower + leaf elements, enhanced them and cut them out in Photoshop using the methods from this course (vid no.7 covers cutting them out). I hand lettered ‘May’ and applied it to the center within Photoshop, then added the dates using my font, Miss Magnolia.

April 27, 2017

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Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies, Illustration, Personal

Freebie: April 2017 Desktop Wallpapers

It’s time for your free April 2017 desktop wallpapers! This month’s (April showers) wallpaper was created using this Winsor & Newton watercolor pan set to carefully drip different colors on this Canson watercolor paper. I then scanned it and enhanced the colors using photoshop, then typeset April + the dates using my font, Miss Magnolia.

March 30, 2017

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Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies, Illustration

Freebie: March 2017 Desktop Wallpapers

It’s time for your free March 2017 desktop wallpapers! I apologize for the tiny delay in this one going up – we had to move all of the site’s content over to the new design last week, so I wasn’t able to post anything new while that happened. As long as you still like these, I’ll keep makin em! 🙂

This month’s wallpaper was created with this Winsor & Newton watercolor pan set and a no.4 round Winsor & Newton Cotman brush. I used my newest font, Miss Magnolia, to typset ‘March’ (as well as the dates) and applied the gold foil texture from my Glitz + Glam kit. You’ll notice a subtle watercolor paper texture on the background too, which is part of the Watercolor Textures Vol. 3 kit 🙂

March 2, 2017

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Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies, Hand Lettering, Illustration

Freebie: February 2017 Desktop Wallpapers

It’s the last Thursday in January, which means it’s time for your free February 2017 desktop wallpapers! This month’s wallpaper was created with a Micron 05 (.45mm), scanned in and vectorized in Illustrator. I cleaned up my vectors using my iPad Pro + Astropad app (here’s how I do that). I then colorized and sized it in Photoshop using my Glitz+ Glam Kit as well as the watercolor patterns from my Watercolor Texture Kit Vol. 3. Finally, the dates were added in (the ‘R’s’ stand for Thursday so as not to be confused with Tuesday). Yep, not the quickest process, but I love making em 😉

January 26, 2017

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Fonts, Freebies, Hand Lettering, Resources, Roundups, Typography

Freebie: Font Making Resources List

If you love lettering and are ready to take things up a notch, converting your lettering into a font is a great next step! Not only will you experience typing with YOUR letters for the first time (nothing like it!), you can also sell your font(s) for some extra side hustle cash. But where do you begin? There are different types of software, plugins, automators..the whole process can seem overwhelming. I know it was for me, which is why I put together this clickable font making resources list with the exact software and tools I use to create and sell hand lettered fonts. You can grab it below and also read more about the process. If you’re looking for a full step-by-step course on how to create *and* sell hand lettered fonts, be sure to visit my course here!

January 19, 2017

15 Comments

Desktop Wallpapers, Fonts

Freebie: January 2017 Desktop Wallpapers

Somehow, it’s already the last Thursday in December, which means it’s time for your free January 2017 desktop wallpapers! This month’s wallpaper was created with FineTec watercolors using a small Pentel waterbrush on Astrobrights (Eclipse Black) cardstock. It was then photographed with a DSLR by Spence and brought into Photoshop where he adjusted color + vibrancies. After that, I resized the artwork and added dates within Photoshop, making it ready for use. So, this little guy is a labor of true wallpaper love 🙂 The download includes the wallpapers in two common resolutions: 1280x1024px and 1920x1080px, with and without dates. I’ve left the year off of the ‘no-dates’ versions, so you can use it for any January in the future, too!

December 29, 2016

8 Comments

Holiday, Illustrator, Patterns, Tutorials, vector

Create Seamless Pattern Wreaths in Adobe Illustrator

I really hope you’ve been enjoying these holiday Adobe Illustrator tutorials! They’ve been extra fun for me to share, and today’s video is no different. In this tutorial, we’ll create seamless pattern wreaths, once again utilizing the free holiday vector pack. These are really impressive looking and so, so easy to create! In the video, I walk you through the one thing to keep in mind when you make yours and then show how easy they are to use! Read on to see the full video!

November 29, 2016

16 Comments

Desktop Wallpapers, Freebies

Freebie: December 2016 Desktop Wallpapers

Happy almost Thanksgiving! (here in the states, anyway 🙂 ) Since we’re hitting the end of November, it’s time for your free December 2016 desktop wallpapers! This month’s wallpaper pattern design was originally created with concentrated watercolors and a no.1 round brush on Canson 140# cold press watercolor paper. It was then scanned into the computer where final touches, recoloring and dates were added in Photoshop. The download includes the wallpapers in two common resoutions: 1280x1024px and 1920x1080px, with and without dates. I’ve left the year off of the ‘no-dates’ versions, so you can use it for any December in the future, too!

November 23, 2016

10 Comments

Hand Drawn, Holiday, Printables, Tutorials, vector

Design Holiday Gift Tags in Adobe Illustrator

Get ready to add some extra beauty to your gifts this year with some custom designed holiday gift tags in Adobe Illustrator! Creating stationery items in Illustrator is honestly one of my favorite parts of graphic design. This week, keeping with the holiday theme, we’ll utilize the free holiday vector pack once again. Grab that vector pack, Adobe Illustrator and about 10 minutes and you’ll have your new gift tags ready for print. Read on to see how!

November 22, 2016

7 Comments

Holiday, Illustrator, Tutorials, vector

Create a Holiday Postcard in Adobe Illustrator

Piggybacking off of last week’s tutorial, this week we’re creating a holiday postcard in Adobe Illustrator! We’ll be using the free vectors from the holiday vector pack, so be sure to grab those if you haven’t already. Today is extra exciting, because I just released my newest font Espresso Roast, which we’ll be using, as well. It’s a font trio, so you get an all caps version, a script version and a symbols font. It’s full of fun personality and was designed so all styles pair perfectly together 🙂 Read on to see how to create a complex wreath design quickly using a few easy tips!

November 15, 2016

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